Universal Email allows you to automatically convert your email links into multi-platform deep links that take users directly to content in the app on mobile devices, while still maintaining the same web experience for desktop and mobile users without the app.

When a link is clicked by a user without the app, it will route that user to the original web URL (including on desktop). When a link is clicked by a user with your app, it will direct that user into the relevant in-app content regardless of platform or email client.

After you added and verified a click tracking domain you have to update DNS CNAME for it and point it to thirdparty.bnc.lt. Once the CNAME record is added, please allow up to an hour for Branch to generate SSL and AASA files for your click tracking domain.

Branch turns the web URLs you put into your emails into Branch deep links, opening the app for users with your app installed to that same content in the app.

To do this, it must be possible to map your web URL content (e.g. a page with brown loafers at https://shop.com/shoes/brown-loafers) into a working deep link that takes users to brown loafers in the app. The Universal Email setup flow will attempt to automatically detect this mapping for you.

If you do not want to set this up yet, you can select No, just open to app homepage for now.

By default, email deep links will redirect users without your app to the same content on the web instead.

If you would like to send users to the App Store or another default you have specified in Link Settings, you can select Open to default redirects.

If you chose not to set up deep linking to specific content within your app, then you can skip this step.

In this step, you will want to enter a web URL that corresponds to a specific screen within your app. In other words, the webpage should have content that also exists in your app. If you do not know whether your web content also exists in-app, try any URL other than your website homepage. Some examples:

A product page, like a page with brown loafers

An article

A content page, like a video or image

Once you choose one and click Submit, meta tags that can be used for deep linking will be retrieved from your webpage. You will see a result indicating the mapping between your web content and your app content. For a full explanation of the tests run on this page and the possible results, check out the support section.

If an app deep linking scheme that maps to your web content cannot be successfully detected, you can configure your settings manually, or you can reach out to your Branch account manager or support for assistance.

We will help you set up one of the following methods:

If you use unique key/value data as deep link values:

Recommended:Hosted deep link data: You can host your deep link data on your website with a metatag that looks like this <meta name="branch:deeplink:my_key" content="my_value" /> where my_key and my_value will become a key value pair in deep link data. For each web URL, Branch will look for those tags and embed the deep link data (if found) into the deep link. Note that Branch also accepts App Links tags for deep linking. For more details, please read Hosted Deep Link Data.

As query parameters: Simply append query parameters on to your web url and Branch will take those parameters and put them in deep link data.

If you use your web URL as a deep link value:

URL path: If you use the path of your web URL as your $deeplink_path value, or any other deep link value, then the configuration will automatically take the path of the URL and put it in deep link data.

Full URL: If you use the full web URL as your $deeplink_path value, or any other deep link value, then the configuration will take the entire URL and put it in deep link data.

The last step of the Universal Email setup flow validates whether you have completed all necessary steps and whether an engineer on your team has completed the integration steps. You will also see recommendations for how to improve your email integration.

Once it's done the AASA file and SSL certificate - required for Universal Links - specific to that domain will be generated.

The conversion to Branch links will only work when your links are wrapped in your click tracking domain. To test links without wrapping, please generate a test link on the Verification step of email onboarding, also accessible by clicking the gear icon for your ESP on the email page.

What happens to your links behind the scenes?

This is what a link looks like within your email template:

http://example.com/?foo=bar

When a user clicks your link, Branch processes the link and converts it to something like this:

Apple recognizes the click tracking domain as a Universal Link, and opens the app immediately without the browser opening. Once the app has opened, Branch will collect the referring URL that opened the app (at this time, it will be the click tracking url). Inside the app, Branch will robotically “click” the link, registering the click with the ESP, and returning the Branch link information to the Branch SDK inside the app. This information is then used to deep link the user to the correct in-app content. See the Support section for more information.